As discussed in my welcoming post on January 13, and in “What’s the Matter?” on February 5, one of the reasons I write is to explore tendencies we have to make ourselves and each other unnecessarily miserable.
Today’s focus is on something that sounds academic and esoteric. It’s neither, actually. Approaching the interactions, relationships, and transactions of life as a series of zero sum games has consequences. Many of them are unfortunate.
Zero Sum games
Although academic tomes are written on the subject (see Economics, Psychology, Game Theory), zero sum is a simple concept at its core. It is a situation in which the value or benefit available is finite and fixed. With only so much to go around, it follows that for certain participants to get more, others must get correspondingly less. The pluses and minuses must balance out to the zero sum of the game’s name.
Often, zero sum works its way into our dealings sneakily, as an assumption. For me to do well, obviously, you must do poorly. One reason this thinking is prevalent is because it’s insidious. When this tendency grows into something out of hand, I am looking to destroy you, more than simply do well for myself.
Are there real zero sum games in life?
In a few situations, zero sums are probably unavoidable. Readers may think of other examples, but the following come to mind.
Elections have the fixed value of one and only one winner; all other candidates must lose. Elections can remain “too close to call” only so long. There will be no sharing of a mayoralty, Senate seat, or Presidency, so any tie must be broken.
Sports provide zero sum situations. For a team to win the World Series, the other must lose it. Ties were so undesirable in hockey that they instituted a brief overtime followed by a shootout that is found unsatisfying enough to be scrapped for unlimited sudden-death in the playoffs. Boxing does have the occasional draw, generally pleasing no one. Note, though, that if one boxer is jubilant with the result and the other is fuming, you probably have an indication of who really won.
Downside I: skewed perspective
Adopting a zero-sum approach can lead to peculiar perspectives, however, including with sports. Take the Buffalo Bills of the early ‘90s, who have received a lot of grief for losing four consecutive Super Bowls. They’ve been called “flops” and even “losers”. The latter is remarkable when you consider the accomplishment of winning four straight conference championships. They are the only team ever to do so. The truth is they lost in the Super Bowls to teams that were simply better than they were (the ’90 Giants, ’91 Redskins, ’92 and ‘93 Cowboys). Indeed, the NFC was far superior to the AFC back then. Could the Bills have avoided some vilification by losing earlier in the playoffs one of those years?
Music fans are notorious for this. It’s not enough to love so-and-so’s playing; he’s got to be “the greatest guitarist who ever lived”. I can’t tell you how many different guitarists I’ve heard fervent arguments for being the GOAT.
Critics are not exempt. In his insightful advocacy for the genius of Ornette Coleman, the otherwise superb Jazz critic Martin Williams would sometimes feel the need to write something snarky about John Coltrane. Is there really only so much greatness available to go around?
Now, it can be fun to argue like this, especially in sports and music, and even more so regarding performers from different eras. Zero sum’s skewed perspective is a counterproductive way of approaching public policy and viewing life, however.
Downside II: needlessly lost opportunity
While so many of life’s controversies are presented as zero-sum games, it ain’t necessarily so (with apologies to Gershwin) in at least two respects.
Interests that on first glance seem to be competing are not always diametrically opposed. In fact, it may be that the real interests involved need not be in opposition at all. This is a major underpinning of modern thought on negotiation, since Fisher and Ury’s 1981 classic Getting To Yes, at least. The simplest example they give is of two people negotiating over an orange. They eventually just cut it in half. One eats the fruit of his half orange and throws out the rind. The other uses the rind to cook and throws out his half of the fruit. With the slightest interest in knowing the other’s interests, each could have had all he wanted.
Secondly, if all anyone cares about is how the pie is to be split up, no one is thinking about increasing the pie so everyone can be fed. Who says the value available is set and limited to what we currently have?
Among concepts central to the training required of professional mediators, these two are prominent. First, carefully identify the parties’ real interests (as opposed to their stated positions). Second, look for creative ways to expand the pie.
It gets worse
Real trouble ensues when Zero Sum combines with “Us vs. Them” (see 2/19 post), as often occurs. It’s a bad combination. “You people are always the problem. You’re always wrong. I’m going to make it my business to see that you never get what you want.”
Among the Us vs. Them scenarios that smack us in the face every day is The Right vs. The Left. On the hot button issues, each camp would have you believe they are entirely correct, those other people are not only completely wrong but evil, and you are either with them or against them. Each side has its orthodoxy and believes it must “win” at all costs.
Sorry, but rigid extremes are not our only choices, and are seldom the best ones.
Specific example: the Environment
It is useful to take a quick look at what passes for discourse these days in a specific area, the environment. Let’s portray a condensed version of what we’re likely to hear from both sides:
The Right: “These environmental activists are crazy. They’d happily forego 10,000 jobs to save the habitat of a species of worm that may or may not be endangered. For them, the risks of a project are never low enough and the environment cannot be clean enough. According to them, humans are the only creatures on earth that do not deserve to be here. Ultimately, if we do nothing with anything, progress will cease, the economy will grind to a halt, and no one will be feeding their families.”
The Left: “These huge corporations care only about maximizing profit and nothing about the environment. There’s nothing they won’t befoul to make a buck. If we leave them to their own devices, the planet will be unlivable before we know it . We’re already well on our way to catastrophe, so regulatory efforts to this point have been completely inadequate.”
My perspective
I am a big fan of both jobs and the environment. There may be a few exceptions, but in general this is not be a zero-sum game where economic development is possible only with corresponding environmental degradation. Likewise, environmental progress need not cripple the economy. To the contrary, there is great opportunity to create jobs in new technologies cleaning up our surroundings or in doing whatever we do more cleanly. After passage of the Clean Air Act, the invention, design, production, and installation of scrubbers formed a new industry. Jobs bolstered the economy and we all breathed better.
Some pipelines should be built; others not. We can figure this out, but not if we just yell slogans at each other across the chasm.
To Righties: Caring about people having safe air to breathe, clean water to drink and nutritious food to eat doesn’t make you crazy. To Lefties: striving to keep your company viable and profitable for the benefit of your employees, investors, and customers doesn’t make you callous. I have no doubt there are both environmentalists and industrialists who are both crazy and callous, of course, and other bad things as well. But, I don’t think most of the former get up in the morning saying “What industry can I wreck today? How many jobs can I end?” And I doubt many of the latter aspire to poison us all or kill polar bears.
Taking on tough issues is hard work. Gathering the facts, analyzing the evidence, creatively considering all the options, and consulting the experts is required to give us a chance to make sound public policy. Speaking of experts, excuse me while I pause for the following.
A brief open letter to scientists
Dear Scientists,
Please be scientists. Don’t fudge, don’t skew, don’t spin. Leave politics to the politicians. I don’t give a damn who you voted for. More importantly, I shouldn’t be able to tell from your work. You know better, from years of training and hard work in the scientific method. We’re relying on you for observations, critical information, and objective professional perspective. Give it to us straight; wherever the facts lead, we can take it. But we must have the facts. Thank you for your kind consideration.
Not just public policy
Other noisy, contentious issues abound in which our “leaders” are too busy striving to smite those fascists or communists, or whatever they’re calling the other side, to do the hard work of addressing the problems. (It hasn’t helped, of course, that media commentators on both sides of the divide have found it quite lucrative to fan these flames.) It is almost irresistible to write about Immigration, for example – and it will be the subject of a future post. For now, suffice it to say that we are not addressing the issue’s most important aspect.
Meanwhile, the damage inflicted by the Zero Sum approach is not limited to public policy. Any relationship, including marriage, in which a difference of opinion is viewed and treated as a zero sum game – requiring a winner and a loser – is heading for trouble. We can do better.
Ken Bossong
© 2019 Kenneth J. Bossong